Bedtime Books

Every night, after the kids and kitchen are cleaned up, teeth are brushed, prayers are said and pyjamas are on, we all squish onto our couch for songs and bedtime books. We take turns for who gets to pick the song. We have gone through times where we sung a string of 'Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam' multiple evenings in a row and none of us mind one bit. And then the kids each get to pick a book. Since Atticus is working his way through his second chapter book (a bit more on that another time. He is just following along as we read it and looking for words he knows); so his pick is most always Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Milayla seems to go for variety in her pick and tonight she chose the Gingerbread Man.

Well, each and every time that little gingerbread man put his hands on his hips to say "you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!, that little lady of ours put her hands on her hips and giggled. It was sweetness I wish I could bundle up and open up again many years down the road as I am sure, no matter how much I enjoy further stages of parenthood, my heart will always miss these early years.

And as we closed the book to the silliness of the gingerbread man being outwitted (and eaten!) by the fox Atticus asked, "Why did the fox eat the gingerbread man?". To which I replied, "well, he was a cookie. Wouldn't you want to eat a cookie, too?". And without missing a beat Atticus said, "Yeah, but not one that moves!".

We all laughed.

I love laughter. I love questions. I love the sparkle of curiosity that shines through Atticus and Milayla's eyes. I love seeing how their love for books and music sparks interest and questions into so many other areas. And it all reminds me why we put that time aside every night to cuddle up on that couch to sing songs and read books. It's to spend time together. It's to learn more about each other. To learn more about the world. And, perhaps most importantly, to strengthen the foundation of our family. Time can't be turned back and so it's important that we invest the time now, to enjoy it together, and plan for the future family we hope for. And I strongly believe these little bedtime traditions are strengthening our little family for many years to come.

December 2013

December involved more time finding doctors than I would have liked, but thankfully, we have enjoyed some nice, healthy days as well. November rounded off with Jason's foot still looking pretty purple and lovely. And he was still using crutches to help get around.

He's pretty proud of this picture. Not sure I understand that, but oh well. 

We learned the hard way that the early morning start time for Jason's work Christmas part (8am) is something to adhere to. We showed up late in the morning and the place was so packed you could hardly move around. The set up was a lot more extreme than we were expecting. There were rides, popcorn and cotton candy vendors, giant chipmunks, kids animation shows and gifts for every kid.

The line ups to get on the rides were crazy. The kids opted for the train and after waiting an hour in line the kids decided they were ready to head home.

They picked up their gifts/treat bags and scarcely made a dent in their candy before they gave me the go ahead to find another home for it (the other home for candy around here is aka: Jason). They got these Alvin the Chipmunk stuffed dolls that have been pretty big hits around here though.

Our first snow fall came and the kids were so excited we had to be out every. single. day. It wasn't a ton of snow but it was more snow than we saw all winter last year so Atticus was a little concerned that we needed to make use of the snow while it was here. We told him that there would be no shortage of snow and we would get more but he just wasn't buying it. I think he believes us now that we have several feet of snow out front and mountains of snow everywhere you look.

These kids love snow.

There were some days in December that were just too cold to venture out in. I'm a winter wimp :). Not to mention the onset of various sick bugs. I cut my finger at the end of November and had to wait with the kids at the walk in clinic to get an updated tetanus shot and I'm pretty sure we all caught something there. And those viruses circulated around the kids and I for most of December. So not fun. I did get to cash in on plenty of cuddle time though.

Funny story about trying to find a walk in clinic though. It took two days to find one to even wait at. On day one: I was at the walk in clinic that Jason had gone to when we hurt his foot and had success with. I was the first one there before they opened. And the first one through the doors when they opened. All this to only be told by the receptionist that the doctor would not be coming in until later in the afternoon but that wasn't certain. Since I obviously didn't want to wait around all morning and most of the afternoon, she gave me a list of nearby walk in clinics and off I went in search of them. The first had been turned into a spa. The second was closed on account of the doctor passing away. And after calling the last place we were going to try and being assured that there were not many people waiting we showed up to a packed waiting room that would take most of the day. By this point the kids and I were all pretty tired and hungry so we headed home with the commitment that we would try that last walk in clinic in the morning and be there extra early, before they opened.

It was a great idea except that everyone else had that idea and the waiting room was full nearly an hour before the doctor was even there. I bit the bullet, grabbed a number, and waited. We waited over half the day. What a grand adventure. And as I finish typing that all out, I feel as though I have already put that in a blog post somewhere. Maybe not. If so, I hope you enjoyed reading it through a second time :).

The point of the story at least, is that with quite a few sick days under our belt we had lots of fun building duplo houses. The kids decided that this one should be our new home. The logistics of size seem not to be a problem to them. I like the flower garden out front. Though I think I would like a few pieces of furniture inside. We'll work on it.

We pulled out our travel road and added some of our more recent travels. I'm not sure if I have put this on here before. Basically, it's a road map of some of the places we have visited. The kids come up with things that they think of when they think of that trip and we draw little pictures. Then the kids drive around and pick a city/country to drive to. Once they arrive to the destination they ask questions about it (ie., when did we go? What was there? What was the weather like? What's gelato? When do we get to go back?) That last question is particularly popular with The Netherlands and Italy. If I'm feeling like a really big keener I pull out some of the photos from when we were in that particular place, otherwise, they drive on to the next destination.

I love the things they come up with to draw. Golden lion. Tulips. Windmill. And our church building for The Netherlands.

Apple trees and the Joseph Smith birthplace memorial for Vermont.

The Acropolis, water, and a blossoming almond tree for Greece. This has been a popular discussion lately, especially when the kids look through the pictures in the scriptures that we have and see pictures of the same places. 

We added Montreal and the kids opted for Mount Royal with St. Josephs, trees, and the Montreal LDS Temple. If I recall correctly, the red bit was from the sun setting. 

Of course, gelato and the Coliseum in Italy.

And sunshine, waves, and a happy, sun drenched picture of us in Turkey.

The other indoor fun that the kids came up with was to act out the nativity with their little nativity set. It is very sweet to watch them. And always fun to see how they leave it set up. 

Couldn't resist snapping a photo of this cheerful girl. Her eyes are still a little tired looking from being sick but she still kept on smiling!

And on those few days that we weren't sick, we were busy putting together the Ward Christmas Party. When the time for the final days of getting all the planning together came up we had several late nights and the kids were there for it all. They were such troopers and so determined to help. On the day of, they set most of the tables themselves. I love their eager little hearts.

Thankfully, we had a slew of people help out with various things. Like Jessica, who cut upwards of 75 snowflakes for us to hang from the ceiling. Or Mary Lynn who cut through so many branches of pine that her hands turned green. And there were folks who helped with set up, take down, the performance, and the food.

It came together well...

But, there would definitely be some things that I would change for next year. Starting (most likely) with stepping down from being the one in charge and helping in a smaller role. But I think I would also simplify things a bit, like the little performance. Oh well. Live and learn.

Running errands, or getting to church, or getting anywhere for that matter always seems to be an adventure when things turn even colder. The kids are getting pretty good at bundling up but Atticus mentioned the other day that he is ready for winter to be over. He said, "Mommy, the snow is fun and all, but why is it still here? I really like the snow, but I'm ready to play at the waterpark and playground again.". Amen, kiddo!

Although, I do love how cute the kids look bundled up.

This is a picture of our first big snow fall. I feel like the picture doesn't do it justice, especially since the sidewalks had already been cleared. The snow around the tree was up to my thigh. It made for an interesting trek to church that morning.

We have had plenty of play in the snow, though!

Some more little kiddos, tired and a bit sick.

The kids wanted to make our Christmas cards this year so I figured 'why not!". It was a lovely idea but I think I should have planned a bit more time for them. Need to get the kids started on them in November next year if we make them again. The kids painted paper yellow, green and brown. And then Atticus cut out the shapes we needed and Milayla glued. I think I would nix that glitter glue next year and just use pen, but the kids enjoyed the mess it made all over their hands. They worked really hard on these and were excited to send them off in the mail to our friends and family.

And we loved getting lots of lovely Christmas cards in the mail and the kids were really delighted when we received a letter from Familie Spoering, our elderly neighbours from our last home in Germany. The kids had sent them a postcard and some photos shortly after we arrived and were pretty excited to receive something in return. Sounds like there is another young family moving into our old apartment. They found a good place!

Atticus has had fun drawing pictures of everyone. This was of his friend here named Mila. He asked if I could send the picture I took of him with the picture to Mila's mom. I did :). Mila is one of the sweet little girls that the kids went trick or treating with this year. We're pretty lucky to know their family.

The kids have done a great job adding to the fingerprints and noseprints on the glass doors at the church. This particular day we were quite early so while I got the kids out of their winter gear and into their church shoes Jason shovelled the walks. The kids were pretty antsy to get out there and help him but that was not happening after they were out of the winter gear.

One day the kids went and played in their imagination train and Atticus told Milayla that they were going to go somewhere cold so she ran away and came back with this. They travelled to different parts of Canada that morning. I love their imaginations at work.

Waaaaaayyyy back the kids did some family trees at their primary activity and Atticus wanted to make sure that I got a picture of them before they went into their workbooks.

Atticus finished and wrapped his finger puppet for Milayla. He did such a great job! I taught him the first couple stitches and then he finished it pretty much on his own, just asking for help on the french knot eyes and knotting off the string to stop and start colors. He is pretty anxious to make another.

I'm really proud of how hard he worked and how excited he was to give all that hard work to Milayla. He was pretty determined for it to be the first gift she opened and she loved it. 

And Atticus was pretty excited when he opened up his gift from Milayla to discover a fingerpuppet lion for himself! Milayla isn't quite at the 'learn to sew' age yet, but she did pick out which finger puppet Atticus should get, the colors and the wrapping paper. 

And by some miracle I finished the Ruby Lou dolls. I made two. One to send for the Ruby Lous for Ruby Jane program and one for Milayla for Christmas. I think this doll pattern reminded me why I am not a big sewer and definitely taught me the limits of my beginner sewing skills. But at least Milayla loves the doll which makes it all worth it. And hopefully the other Ruby Lou has found it's way to a little child that loves it too!

Atticus got one final bout of sick at the end of the month and gave me a bit of a scare when he woke up with spots on his face. Turns out it is quite common and can happen when the child is sick with a bad cough. The doctor seemed surprised that I didn't know that, but seeing that it had never happened before I figured that heading into the doctor was the safest route to take.

And then there was the Stake Christmas Concert that Jason and I sang at with some other people from our congregation. It's the first time I have sung in front of people in a while and it had me a tad bit nervous. We were the very last number. It was a long time for the kids to sit and yet, when we got up and sang they sat more reverently than they had the rest of the night. Little blessings.

I'm still missing pictures somewhere of the going ons of December so I will have to post those as I find them. Just glad that January has been mostly healthy so far. Nearly onto February!!

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas Day was pretty relaxed around here. After waking up, Milayla promptly pulled out a stack of books from our Christmas book box and probably would have been quite content on reading those for quite a bit longer than we let her. But alas, we had stockings to open and the first of several phone calls to make. 

For the sake of my memory next year. We put an activity book, some roasted nuts (Milayla is presently in love with pistachios), a little lego figure, toy car, crayons/pens, and a few chocolate coins in each stocking and the kids were pretty enthralled.

And so was this big kid with his surprise of homemade buckeyes that he found in his stocking.

Between the stockings and all the fabulous clothes that Grandma and Grandpa English sent out (and the kids unwrapped that morning) the kids weren't too keen to open other gifts and we just hung out in the living room, eating nuts, trying on new clothes and playing with little lego men for the first couple hours before we finally decided we should probably go eat breakfast.

You can see Grandpa and Grandma English on Skype there; getting to see our blanket filled living room.

And I'm pretty sure that Milayla wore these new boots around the house for most of the day.

I've got to say that I love those initial hours on Christmas morning with the living room floor filled with little ones in pyjamas all wrapped up in their bed quilts. It's so cozy.

For breakfast, Atticus insisted that we needed to have pancakes (our traditional birthday breakfast) since we were celebrating Jesus' birthday. So we feasted on pancakes and fruit. Before kicking off breakfast though, I got to share a little spiritual thought from my new Christmas book. It's an illustrated book of the testimony of Charles Dickens on the life of Christ. Love it. And it sure captured the kids' attention as well.

This is the first Christmas in 5 years that Jason has had egg nog. That's if you don't count my pitiful attempts to make our own eggnog. Let's just say that he has been happily cashing in on the readily available holiday nog this December. And he has succeeded in building mini-egg-nog lovers as well.

After we all cleaned up from breakfast we very leisurely opened up some gifts. Pretty sure that I have mentioned this before, but we kept things pretty simple around here. Aside from a few home made gifts the kids each got a couple small toys (a puzzle and skill building item each) and a couple books.

There really was no gift rush around here and I loved it. The kids adored everything that they opened and as we neared to the last gift, I could tell that they were getting all gifted out and I was grateful that we didn't pile more gifts on them. I think it would have made things a little too overwhelming.

I loved Milayla's excited over her gift from Atticus. The handmade cat fingerpuppet.

And Atticus was pretty over the moon when he discovered that he got a lion fingerpuppet from Milayla.

It was a lot of fun to see them play with those together.

And read their new books together.

I decided on the morning of Christmas Eve that I would whip a dress together for Milayla that would match the doll that I made her. And make a matching tie for Atticus. Jason told me I was craaaazzzy and that it was too late in the game. He ran out to grab an item from the store with the kids and mail something off - by the time he got back I was finishing up. Success.

Actually, the real success was seeing how much the kids loved those items. Milayla put her dress on as soon as we would let her and has wanted to wear it every Sunday since. Atticus wants to learn how to make his own tie now. And that little doll has been toted everywhere by both kids.

The kids brainstormed the gift that they wanted to make for Jason and came up with some face lotion in hopes that he would stop using Mommy's. They're thoughtful kids :).

I just want to point out the look of complete panic on Milayla's face right there. It was this weird moment as I caught the picture just as she was pulling away as I was asking who was next to open a present and she was answering.

Tickles from lion.

After gifts were opened we really just played. Jason and I eventually got around to getting dressed. And we were able to chat with some more family periodically throughout the morning and afternoon. Including a phone call with Grandma and Grandpa Hochstein (and Uncle Chase and Aunt Keely) where Atticus and Milayla got to see their new sled they got from them. Though, due to Jason's expert hiding abilities, Atticus had already seen the sled - twice.

The sash has come undone in this photo, but you can kind of see how Milayla's dress turned out here as the kids were playing in their new sled.

When the kids went down for nap, Jason had one more batch of perogies to make. Since we were only making gf perogies this year, I made a big batch of filling and Jason made the perogy dough and formed the perogies in a few batches; a batch a day. Splitting it up made the process so easy and simple. We froze the perogies that we had already made and it all just needed to be put into a boiling pot of water on the day of.

More play time.

Both the kids received puzzles with a higher piece count than they have done before and have already mastered them solo. They love a challenge.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention our most brilliant idea of Christmas. We put beginner recorders in the kids' stockings. They were a little unsure about them at first but when Grandpa English pulled out his recorder on Skype and started playing the kids changed their mind and decided they were brilliant. We had them playing a duet most of the day. It was pretty awesome. They actually figured out how to change sound and pitch pretty quickly on their own, but they have some practice ahead of them yet. First step, learning to keep a beat and learning notes. They're young yet, they've got time. In the mean time, just look how cute they are playing those things! It makes the practice songs 100% worth it.

Upside Down Cranberry Cake modified to be gf and without sugar in the topping. It was delicious!

We eventually made it around to dinner. It worked out perfectly. We had a nice selection and it came together so perfectly. In the event I cannot remember next year what we had this year I want to write it so that I have a reference. We had 3 batches of perogies with sour cream (no sauce this year..), baked sweet potatoes, roasted green beans, mixed green salad with red onion and mandarins and creamy Quinoa/Kale/Parsnip salad. It was great!

I healthified dessert with just a cake and some fresh fruit salad and greek yogurt. I think it was the first year that we didn't have the whipcream and marshmallow laden canned fruit salad and I could not believe how happy we all were without it. While getting fresh berries in December is a tad more expensive, everyone remarked at how much they loved the fruit salad.

It was a lot of food. And we had a ton of leftovers. Though I don't think the kids minded eating leftover perogies for the rest of the week one bit.

After we cleaned up dinner, we watched the short nativity (the church produced one), curled up in our pyjamas and say Christmas songs at the piano until the kids were too tired to sing anymore.

It was a good day. I am so happy that we simplified, planned ahead and then just let things unfold however they wanted to organically. So grateful for all the time that I got to spend with this little family of mine this holiday season. Time together really is a wonderful gift. It fills me with so much peace and joy - and that seems to capture that wonderful Spirit of Christmas so magically.